Sri Lanka consumer prices soar 5.3-pct in May 

Jun 22, 2016 (LBO) – Sri Lanka’s inflation climbed for the fourth straight month in May after recording a fall of 0.



7 percent in January, according to the National Consumer Price Index (NCPI) introduced in October last year with 2013 as the base.

According to the Census and Statistics Department inflation was 5.3 percent in May from a year earlier, compared with a 4.3 percent increase witnessed in April 2016.

NCPI has been calculated as 113.





7 for May 2016. This shows an increase of 2.1 index points or a percentage of 1.



9 compared to the previous month’s (April) index of 111.6. This monthly change is due to the expenditure value of food items increased by 0.

91 percent and expenditure value of non-food items increased by 0.97 percent. The expenditure value of food commodity group has increased by 0.



91 percent in May 2016 compared to April 2016.



“This was mainly due to the price increases in vegetables, rice, limes, potatoes, dhal-masoor, red onions, green chilies, chicken, sugar, garlic and dried fish compared to the previous month (April),” the department said. “However, decreases in prices were recorded for eggs, papaw, banana, mangoes and coconut compared to the previous month (April).

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